Dining and Lovemaking in Pompeii
The destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 CE allows us to reconstruct daily life in an Early Imperial Roman town, especially residents’ attitudes toward food and sex. Brian Rose, professor of archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania and deputy director…
Maria Montessori’s Pacifism
Italian educator and physician Maria Montessori (1870–1952) is best known for the teaching method that bears her name. She was also a lifelong pacifist, although historians tend to consider her writings on this topic as secondary to her pedagogy. In…
Italian History Reimagined
Join filmmakers Mary Lou and Jerome Bongiorno for a screening and discussion of “Hearing Voices,” a movie they created where Italian Inventor Antonio Meucci and Patriot General Giuseppe Garibaldi reunite as ghosts at the home they shared in 1850s, in…
Giacomo Puccini, and the End of the Golden Age of Italian Opera
Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot was the last opera of the golden age in 1926, two years after the great composer’s death. Legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini supervised the last great moments of Turandot at La Scala. Joseph Pucciatti, co-founder and director of…